Day 78: Help

“A shrew and a mouse?” Gon said incredulously. Theatre Day had been spent rehearsing the route the performers would take through the forest as they moved from scene to scene, something they’d practised only a few times before now. Since Gabu wasn’t able to take part in that, Mei had stayed with him. Now that Theatre Day was over, they were in the middle of telling Jess and Gon about the events of the past few days. “You think a shrew and a mouse are going to heal your leg?”

“There was also a bird,” Gabu said meekly, “but she changed her mind.”

Jess and Gon looked at him as if he’d just said that a loosed boulder had decided not to roll down a hill. “When I fell off that cliff,” Gon said, “I ate until I couldn’t eat any more. And do you know what happened?”

“What?” Gabu said.

“I survived.”

“What Gon means is,” Jess said, “you need to be eating a lot more than that. Perhaps twice what you usually eat, if you want it to heal quickly. Perhaps more, considering you’ve been starving yourself. Have you never taken care of a sick pack member before?”

“I was thinking I could get by just by eating people who want to be eaten,” Gabu said. “That way, the only people who die are the ones who are already dying.”

“Which would include you if you keep that up,” Gon said darkly.

“He still can’t hunt for himself,” Mei said, hoping they would get the message without him having to ask explicitly.

“Why didn’t you come to us?” Jess said. “It’s long overdue we repaid your kindness in helping me escape from my pack. We can stay and hunt for you until your leg heals.”

Gabu still looked undecided, so Mei decided for him. “Thank you. That would really help.”

“Okay,” Gabu said, “but you’ve got to hunt randomly.” Jess and Gon looked at him in confusion, so Gabu explained the way Takkan had taught him of hunting in a different part of the forest every night. He tried briefly to explain the reasoning behind it, but neither he nor Mei understood it well enough to explain it to someone else, and Jess and Gon weren’t interested in philosophy anyway.

“Well, that’s a load of—”

“Of course,” Jess interrupted. “We’ll try our best.”

“Thanks,” Mei said. “I’ll go and warn everyone that you’ll be hunting in the forest starting from tonight.”

As Mei was leaving, Gon shook his head in disbelief. “Warning the prey before you hunt. This forest is insane.”

After Jess and Gon had left to find somewhere to stay in the Emerald Forest, Gabu and Mei remained in their cave. Gabu was starting to get restless from having to stay still for so long, so Mei tried to keep him occupied with conversation.

Some time later, Mei spotted three birds flying over the meadow towards them. One of them, smaller than the other two, was flying slightly erratically; they kept landing and struggling to get airborne again, and the other two had to keep going back to wait for them.

“Look!” Mei said. “I think that’s Hikari over there. He’s learning to fly.”

Gabu limped to the mouth of the cave to watch. “It sure is. He got really far that time.”

The two of them cheered whenever Hikari made any progress and shouted encouragement when he was struggling. Slowly but surely, Hikari and his parents made their way towards them. When, with one last burst of effort, Hikari ascended the hill and landed right in front of Gabu and Mei, Toto and Riri joined in with the celebratory noises.

“Mama, Papa, I’m not a little chick anymore,” Hikari protested. “You don’t need to make a big deal out of it.”

“You’ll always be our little chick,” Toto said. “Hello,” he said to Gabu and Mei. “We’re teaching Hikari how to fly.”

“That was amazing,” Mei said. “You came all this way without any help.”

“I sure couldn’t have done that,” Gabu said.

“It was nothing,” Hikari said shyly. “And you’re a wolf,” he said to Gabu. “Wolves don’t fly.”

“I did jump across a really wide ravine once,” Gabu said. “Mei and I were being chased by the other wolves who wanted to kill us.”

“That’s different. You need wings to fly for real.”

“I guess you’re the expert,” Gabu said. Mei stifled a laugh. Luckily, Hikari didn’t seem to notice.

“How many wolves were chasing you?” he asked.

“Fourteen in the group that came after us,” Gabu said promptly, “seven at that particular moment. The wolves that found us were led by Bari, the second-in-command of the Baku Baku wolf pack. He once ate an entire goat in one bite.”

“Wait, really?” Mei said. That didn’t sound possible, even if it was a young goat.

“That’s what they say,” Gabu said. Hikari was listening intently. “If it had been Giro’s wolves that found us, we probably wouldn’t be here today. Giro is—was—the leader of the pack. He killed Mei’s mother when Mei was very young, but not before his mother bit Giro’s ear clean off. And it never grew back.”

“He’s not the leader anymore?” Hikari asked.

“No,” Gabu said. “When Giro and the other wolves cornered me, high up in the mountain, our fighting caused an avalanche that killed Giro and a few of the other wolves. I don’t know who’s leading what’s left of the pack now.”

“Lala,” Mei reminded him. “Boro told me when I met him.”

“Oh, good for her. She always wanted to be in charge. Anyway, that’s enough of my stories. How are you doing, Hikari?”

“I’m fine,” Hikari said.

“Did you find any friends after we asked around for other young birds?” Mei asked.

“Yeah, Camille. She’s cool. She’s a swift.”

“The two of them get on very well together,” Riri said.

“She’s just a friend,” Hikari said, lest anyone mistakenly think otherwise.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Mei said.

“Now that you can fly, you can visit her all by yourself,” Toto said.

“Camille is older, but swifts take longer to fledge than us,” Riri explained. “It might be another month before she can fly on her own.”

“I’m going to help teach her when her wings are ready,” Hikari said proudly.

“Then you’d better keep on learning,” Toto said. “How about you fly all around the hill and back?”

“All by myself?”

“All by yourself.”

Hikari hopped up to the cave mouth, took a running start, and flapped his way into the air. He quickly disappeared out of sight.

“They grow up so fast,” Mei said. “It seems like only yesterday that he could barely form complete sentences.”

“Yeah,” Gabu said, “but in truth it was a whole seven or eight days ago.”

“Was it that recent?” Toto said. “It feels like longer.”

“Do you two want another break from looking after him?” Mei asked.

“If you wouldn’t mind,” Riri said. “He should be easier to take care of now that he can keep himself warm and chew his own food. The only thing you really need to do is make sure he doesn’t get eaten.”

“I think we can manage that,” Mei said, conscious that Gabu still hadn’t eaten properly yet.

Just then, Hikari returned. “I did it!” he chirped.

“Amazing!” Toto said. “How many times did you have to land on the ground?”

“Only twice. I think I can do it all in one go if I try again. Can Gabu and Mei watch this time?”

Mei looked to Gabu, unsure if he should be moving around, but Gabu seized at the excuse to leave the cave. “Of course,” he said, and followed Hikari outside, Mei following alongside.

“We’re going to go back to the forest to check on some things,” Riri said. “You’ll be well-behaved for Uncle Gabu and Uncle Mei, right, Hikari?” The two of them beamed at being called uncles. Hikari nodded. “All right. We’ll be back soon.”

No sooner had Toto and Riri flown out of sight than Hikari was hopping up and down to get Gabu and Mei’s attention. “I’m going to do it again now. Ready?”

“Ready,” Gabu said.

They watched intently as Hikari took off and flapped his way around the hill. He tried to fly high enough above it that he would remain in sight of them, but he kept dipping down below the top of the hill, unable to sustain the altitude. At one point, when he was on the far side of the hill, he dipped down and didn’t come back up, which lasted long enough that Mei started to worry. But then he was back in the air and soaring around the remainder of the hill.

“I only landed once that time!” he said as he reached them.

“That was a lot better,” Mei said. “Do you want to try it one more time?”

This time, Hikari was a lot more confident. He sailed around the hill in record time without stopping even once and was met with whoops and cheers from Gabu and Mei.

“Race me!” he said, already getting ready to go around again.

“Uh,” Mei said, looking at Gabu’s leg.

“You two race,” Gabu said cheerfully. “I’ll be here to congratulate the winner.”

“Okay, then.” Mei lined up beside Hikari. “Three, two, one, go!”

Mei got an early lead, shooting ahead while Hikari struggled to get into the air. Grass was trampled underhoof as Mei sped around the first quarter of the hill. In a matter of seconds, however, Hikari had caught up. He glided effortlessly right beside Mei’s head, grinning widely. Mei put on a burst of speed and maintained the lead, leaving Hikari behind. Again, Hikari was right next to him, and then ahead of him. The young sparrow even performed a mid-air loop, during which Mei almost caught back up, but with a flap of his wings, Hikari was moving faster than ever. At last, they returned to where Gabu was sitting and enjoying the show. Hikari was the clear winner.

“Wow,” Gabu said, “it’s a good thing sparrows don’t hunt goats or wolves. Otherwise, we’d all be in trouble!”

Mei was exhausted. “Yeah, I thought running away from wolves was hard work.”

“You think I could’ve beaten you too if you hadn’t hurt your leg?” Hikari asked Gabu.

“Hmm, I might have had a chance back when I was a little younger than I am now, assuming I was very hungry at the time. I don’t think even your parents could have flown as fast as you just did.”

“I don’t know,” Hikari said, “they can fly really fast when they want to.”

They continued playing flying and racing games all the rest of the day. Toto and Riri joined in when they returned from their break. Hikari was right; they could encircle the hill in half the time it took Hikari, and a third of the time it took Mei.

To make things fairer, they played in pairs, Riri and Mei on one team and Toto and Hikari on the other. The first person in each team would carry a twig around the hill and pass it to their teammate, who would then carry it around the hill a second time. Hikari’s team almost always won, except when Toto intentionally gave Mei a head start to keep things interesting.

It was quite literally the most fun Hikari had had in his life, and the most fun the rest of them had had in ages.